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Use the Edit Variable dialog box to specify the content of variables when they appear in your tables.
To open the Edit Variable dialog box, double-click on a variable name in the Variables pane or select a variable in the Variables pane and choose
from the menu.
The Edit Variable menu. See the topic The IBM SPSS Data Collection Survey Reporter Menus for more information.
The Edit Variable toolbar. See the topic The IBM SPSS Data Collection Survey Reporter Toolbar Buttons for more information.
Name. You cannot change the variable name in the Edit Variable dialog box. To rename a variable, use the Variables pane. See the topic Renaming Variables for more information.
Description. The default description is the variable's description (label) or the text of the question on which it is based. You can change the variable description if required. The description appears in the Results tab, if you have chosen to display variable descriptions. Any changes you make to the description will be applied to any existing tables that include the variable next time you generate them.
Data type. Displays the variable's type.
Category list. The main section of the dialog box displays a list of the categories in the variable. This list also includes other items that are part of the variable, for example, means, totals, or other items that you create.
Properties pane. The Properties pane is an advanced feature that you can use to view and edit the properties for categories and other items in a variable. See the topic Edit Variable dialog box: Properties pane for more information.
Script pane. The Script pane is an advanced feature that you can use to display and edit the syntax for a variable. See the topic Edit Variable dialog box: Script pane for more information.
The changes you make in this dialog box define how the variable appears when you add it to a table. Any changes you make here are not shown in the tooltips in the Variable List and are not available for defining filter conditions. For example, suppose you use the Insert Bands dialog box to categorize the values in a numeric variable into two bands called High and Low. When you subsequently create a filter based on this numeric variable, the High and Low bands will not appear in the Filter tab and you will not be able to specify them in an advanced filter expression. See the topic Filter Conditions for more information.
Generally any changes you make in the Edit Variable dialog box will affect all tables that include the variable, although the changes will not be visible in existing tables until you repopulate them. However, changes will not affect any tables where you have used the Edit Table Variable dialog box to define how the variable is to appear in those specific tables.